Monday, September 30, 2013

After
lots of planning, hours spent on Trip Advisor working out the logistics and
some blind faith that Thailand Railways would indeed send our tickets (bought a
month out) to our hotel in Bangkok we headed out in the predawn cool for what
we knew was going to be a long day.

Haulamphong
Railway station is Bangkok’s Central – but funnily enough it doesn’t compare
with the Berlin Hauptbahnhof or even Sydney’s central.Our train, the “Tourist Excursion train to
Nam Tok” was scheduled for a 6.30am departure.Our expectations of comfort etc were low, and met but hey, it’s an
adventure!It departed sort-of on time
and painfully slowly crawled its way out of Bangkok’s sprawling
metropolis.Satellite dishes on rusty
iron & plastic sheeting roofs are just a bit incongruous.

We
had ‘booked seats’ but when we got on there were people in these seats so we
just found an empty one further along the carriage and figured we’d deal with
the seat issue later.A man in a uniform
saw we had tickets and walked past.Sometime later the boss ticket man came through and started moving
people all over the place.We knew he
was the boss ticket man because his uniform had more gold buttons, more ribbons
etc and he was wearing a hat!We
followed his instructions when he gestured that we were in the wrong seats, and
then insisted we had our right seats when we realised our seats were facing the way
the train was going and the lady occupying them suggested we take the seats
opposite and therefore facing backwards.

Once
the important train ticket man got seating sorted he took off his special hat
and took hold of a megaphone and became the funny tour guide – shame we had
absolutely no idea what he was saying but it must have been funny because he
and the rest of the passengers all laughed.Maybe it was something about the silly farang (foreigner) pair in seats
32 & 33.

First
stop was the town of Nakhon Pathom for a 40 min visit to the Giant Chedi – pretty
amazing from a distance but we were saving the knee so didn’t venture much past
the markets where we got muffins for breakfast from a little cake shop and
coffee from a street cart.

This
train is notoriously slow (and late) but we arrived at Kanchanaburi pretty much
on time.The train stops for 25 minutes
so you can walk across the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai.Besieged by vendors trying to sell us books,
food, and tacky souvenirs we made our way to and over the bridge on foot. Back on the train for the slow crossing.

Back
on the train and through some really pretty landscape we rocked and clattered
our way to Nam Tok.This little town is
the end of the line and most passengers were Thai day trippers heading for the
waterfall.It seems that 10 scheduled hours
(5 there and 5 back) on the train for 2 hours at the waterfall is a strange way
to spend the day but they all seemed to be enjoying the party atmosphere with
lots of seat swapping, eating and laughing.

This
train is 3rd class so you’re a/c is an open window.Track side maintenance is pretty much
non-existent so by the end of the trip the floor looked like it had been
mulched – track side greenery was whipped off by the train and showered in
through the open windows.We put the window
up except for the top 6-8” but still managed to get covered in leaves, bits of
stick, and even the occasional insect.

We
had arranged for a car & driver to meet us at Nam Tok to take us directly
to Hellfire Pass.We wanted to visit the
Memorial Museum and walk the track.The
driver found us – not hard there were only 3 other white people on the train
and with the aid of some pretty simple gestures, showed us the way to the 7/11
where we could grab something a bit more substantial to eat.We didn’t have time or language skills (and
he certainly couldn’t act as a translator) to venture to the road-side food
carts.Sandwiches, a couple of cartons
of flavoured milk and a bag of what I thought was mango slices and we were
off.Turns out I had inadvertently bought
a packet of pickled mango – oh well, tick that off the list of life’s experiences.

The
drive from Nam Tok to Hellfire Pass is about half an hour.The Memorial Museum is quite small but is the
starting point of a 90min walk along the actual rail bed.We got the audio guide, the walkie-talkie (to
call for help etc) water and applied bug spray as instructed and set off – not quite
sure what to expect and wondering if Tony’s knee would in fact hold up given
the warnings about the need to be in good physical shape due to the steepness
of the path.

The
audio guide is excellent and despite some really heavy rain our driver met us
at the Hintock cutting end in a little under 90 mins.Pictures probably give some idea of what our
diggers endured but I cannot imagine what they went through, especially in the
monsoon season where it apparently rained for 140 days straight.

This says it all....

We
had wanted to visit the Weary Dunlop Memorial Park, but the original owner of
the resort where it is situated(and
designer/builder/funder) has sold and the new owners only allow resident guests
– damn shame because he could make some money by charging an entry fee to
non-guests.

Back
to Kanchanaburi, paid the driver and grabbed a coffee before hopping on the
5.20 bus back to Bangkok.

We both dozed
a bit but I woke bolt upright & wide awake at some very hard breaking, a
skid and then a loud bang.Yep, the bus
and a Toyota rukus-like-thing had turned a Toyota hilux into a sandwich.We sit on the bus for about 20 minutes, the
next scheduled bus pulls in to the space between our bus and the other accident
vehicles, everyone off our bus and onto the other one… ooops not enough room –
OK wait for the next one (20 minutes) – rain starts – 10 remaining passengers
get back onto our original bus, it pours, the bus leaks, we move seats.Next bus goes through standing room
only.Our driver gets back on and moves
our bus 100m up the road where we wait again.Next bus (the last for the day) stops and we get on, and get a seat.Sunday night traffic in torrential rain into
Bangkok is snails-paced.Finally about
9am we stop at the southern bus station.Get a taxi back to the hotel and peel off the wet clothes before heading
out to see if we can find dinner at 10pm in the pouring rain.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Decided
to explore over the other side of the river and check out the Fair Trade
Handcrafts shop while we were there.

Got
a tuk tuk to the iron Bridge and wandrered along the riverfront.Lots of old timber (?teak) shophouses – some in
good condition and used as galleries, shops etc and other is a pretty sad state
of repair.Loved the place making
colourful elephants – very cool.

Next
stop was Wat Kate – not as its name might suggest but a temple dedicated to the
dog.Hundreds of little doggie statues
and many many very friendly and well-fed dogs lived there.Stunning timber buildings too.

The
Fair Trade shop was amazing and I managed to get little pieces (purses, etc)
made by women from 7 different hilltribes – will make great teaching resources
for senior textiles.And it I’d had a
lazy $450 I’d have bought this… stunning isn’t it!

Next
stop was the Chiang Mai museum – sadly they were renovating the entire second
floor but to compensate, entry was free.And it was a no-camera zone so … no pics.

The
whole time we’ve been here, Tony has been on the lookout for Chiang Mai sausage
and we finally came across it in a little place near the Three Kings
Monument.Very good indeed.

Wandered
a bit then back to the hotel for a nap – we’re still finding t he heat/humidity
knocking us a bit.. or is it the beers at lunch time?

Off
to the night market again, ominous looking sky which foolishly we chose to
ignore and didn’t take the umbrellas.It
poured, and kept pouring all night.

Day
6

I
had considered checking out a couple of the handcraft villages out of town but
realised none of them were fabric orientated so we decided to check out the
Airport Plaza Shopping Centre – the only really big mall type centre in Chiang
Mai.Grabbed a tuk tuk and headed over
there about 9am, only to discover it doesn’t open till 11am – oh well,
Starbucks & the newspaper filled in the gap (and they still make pretty
ordinary coffee!)

The
airport Plaza is huge, and has a sensational Hilltribes handcraft section-
spent a lovely 90 minutes browsing & chatting to some of the stall holders
about the fabric - heaven – bought a couple of lovely tops too!

I had a bit more of a wander round town this afternoon & came across a Wat undergoing renovations - gotta love bamboo scaffolding!

Next time any of my students complain about wearing their school unifoirm properly, I'm going to show them this photo - just love the boys in their pink pants!

Last
visit to the night markets, a couple of purchases but a lovely hour spent
chilling in the Colour Bar listening to live music over an iced coffee.Bangkok tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Our
only real ‘tourist’ day .. we had organised the taxi man from the airport to
take us up to Doi Suthep and the Tiger Kingdom today.Thought about using ‘public transport’ but
given I knew it was a super windy road to the temple on the mountain, I figured
a trip like that in the back of a songthaew was probably not something Tony’s
knee would take kindly to, so taxi it was.

Doi
Suthep is a mountain situated ‘behind’ Chiang Mai with a large temple complex
on top.You run the gauntlet of the
usual souvenir sellers if you go up the stairs (all 300+ of them) but we took
the cable car up for 30baht ($1).It’s a
bit hard to describe so maybe I’ll just post some photos instead.

The view of Chiang mai would be spectacular in the dry season.

Next
stop was Tiger Kingdom.We did the “will
we, won’t we” thing – and while I don’t particularly
like to see animals exploited, I contented myself with the notion that without
something like Tiger Kingdom, these amazing animals may not be alive and the
species would be one step closer to endangered.There is al sorts of discussion as to whether the tigers are drugged,
de-clawed, mis-treated etc – nothing we saw today gave us any concern.The cats were beautiful, we checked the claws
on a couple and they were certainly there, and while they were quiet, I do not
believe they were drugged – our domestic cats sleep for large parts of the day
so why not these guys.

Awsome experience and I must admit I really did not realise just how big these girls were. This one loved having her tummy scratched.

Tony found it much easier to pat the tigers on their lounges - kneeling on the ground was not an option for him.

Is this the most beautiful face ever?

These two were really enjoying chasing this palm frond - just like our girls chase things on bits of string

Playing chasings & pounce in the pool .. just what a tiger ordered on a hot day.

Home
early afternoon, a very late lunch, a nap and we’ll head to the night markets
again tonight.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Earlier
start than planned courtesy of the spoilt brat 3 yr old in the room next door
who decided 6am was a good time to chuck a tantrum!Another beautiful day and we had planned to
visit Wat Umong.Negotiated a reasonable
rate with a songthaew and headed off about 9.30am for the twenty minute
trip.Wat Umong has a number of
underground tunnels and a big chedi on tip of them.Surrounded by trees it is a little
reminiscent of some of the Angkor temples and the work the monks do to stop the
jungle encroaching is quite evident.There are also heaps of ‘message trees’ .. in reality just regular trees
with messages painted on signs that are attached to the trees – all spiritual/philosophical
in nature as you would expect at a wat.

Not attached to a tree, but this was my favourite

There are lots of dogs living at this monestary and we saw a couple of litters being cared for very gently by the resident monks, but the most priceless thing we saw was a young monk bringing one litter from the house down to an area where they could be outside.

We
got the songthaew to drop us at Nimmanhaemin Rd with the intention of exploring
this area a bit and then checking out a department store – it’s supposed to be
the hip new up & coming part of Chiang Mai with lots of cool eateries &
shops – it really didn’t live up to our expectations so we stopped for some
lunch (the little place we ate at did make a damn good iced coffee) and we ended up getting hopelessly lost trying
to find the department store so we grabbed a tuk tuk and headed back to the
hotel.

Had
a swim and Tony had to go back to the tailor to collect his trousers &
shirts.Lots of thunder, wind and a
short blackout suggested we were in for a really good wet-season storm but in
the end it came to nothing more than a few drops of rain.

I’d
booked a cooking class and at 4pm we headed down to reception to wait for our
pick-up.Aon (the lovely young chef who
ran the classes) arrived on time and we headed to his local market for a mobile
lecture on Thai ingredients.Lots of
goodies to look at and check out including bags of Thai 'snacks' ... we would call them fried silkworms!

And this guy preparing deep fried crackling strips - now these ARE yummy!

Aon
has only been running his school for about 9 months and already it’s ranked #2
on Trip Advisor – and after tonight we can absolutely see why.He has a really cool outdoor kitchen with 8
concrete work stations and a dem station at one end and a big table in the
middle.There were only 3 students
tonight – us and a young New Yorker and we had a ball. (but for some reason, this blog won't let me upload any more pics.

My
favourite part was learning how to flame a wok when we made the Stir Fried Chicken & Cashews .. not giving the secret away,
but a picture is worth a thousand words.

After a great meal and a very informal discussion on his menus and the school as a whole, Aon
dropped us back at the Tha Phae gate about 9.30pm. We grabbed a coffee at the
Coffee Club and headed home. Tomorrow we're off to Doi Suthep (the temple on the mountain)

Monday, September 23, 2013

Awake
before our alarm and then had to wait to go down for breakfast which starts at
7.30am.Fair selection of fruit &
cooked stuff but I’ve never seen chocolate iced profiteroles on a breakfast
buffet before – oh well a first time for everything – and no I didn’t have one!

Chiang
Mai is tailoring central – they are everywhere but we’d been past a little guy
yesterday with a sign about the Ghurkha Tailor .. I’d read about him somewhere
so we decided to try our luck.Tony got
measured up for two of pairs of work pants & a couple of shirts.We picked the fabric from a really large
range, he paid a deposit and off we went in search of the Wororot Market and
Hmong Lane (I was on a fabric hunt)

We
walked from the Tha Phae gate down to the river, turned left and found the
markets.First stop was the Chiang Mai
flower market. North of here were it is higher and cooler they grow masses of temperate
climate flowers.The first part of the
market are all the growers & wholesalers - roses, chrysanthemums (white, yellow, pink and
an assortment of gaudy fluro greens, blues & pinks – these ones were pretty
yuk actually)What was amazing was the
selection of tropical flowers – Singapore orchids, ginger, heliconia, lotus and
alpinia and a huge selection of foliage.

Into
the Wororot Market itself – and if you have seen one huge Asian market (wet
& dry sections) you can easily imagine this one.By now it was getting really hot and we were
having no luck finding Hmong Lane and stupidly I’d forgotten the map!Back to the hotel.Lunch on the way at a little hole in the wall
restaurant across from the end of our little soi (side street) for the best
mango shake I have ever drunk!

Tony’s
knee was a bit sore from all the mornings walking so I headed out by myself to
track down Hmong Lane – this time armed with the trusty Nancy Chandler
map.Funny how easy things are to find
when you have a map – found in no time at all.I spent a couple of hours wandering through this market looking specifically
for traditional garments – and more specifically a jacket that a) would fit me
and b) did not have masses of orange in it.I saw lots of amazing textiles but came home empty handed except for a lovely
book on Thai Textiles that I bought from Backstreet Books.

I
did get to check out another of the Wats in Chiang Mai.. Wat Buppharam is
beautiful, but since I was wearing a sleeveless top I didn’t actually venture
inside the temple itself.

Chiang
Mai is famous for its Night Market so tonight’s agenda was a visit there. We
walked – and soon discovered it’s quite a bit more than the 15-20 min some maps
suggest.Dinner at the Ping Ping
restaurant (squid in basil & chilli and hottest green curry ever, washed
down with a cold Chang beer) the in the Anursan section then into the madness
that is the night market proper.Much
more stuff aimed at the tourists eager to part with their cash for an
obligatory “I heart Chiang Mai” t shirt or silk pillow cases.Fun none-the-less and we will probably go
back to explore more another night. We grabbed an iced coffee at a little stall
in the Kalare section of the night markets and had another foot massage - 100baht
for 30 minutes of torture.Jumped a tuk
tuk (thankfully Chiang Mai tuk tuk drivers are no-where near as crazy s their
Bangkok counterparts) back to the Tha Phae gate and home.